As is known, pods used to brew a single serving of a beverage generally consist of two portions of filter paper placed one over the other and sealed.
These two portions enclose centrally between them a charge of one of the above mentioned products, in most cases substantially circular in shape.
Pods of this kind are made in specific machines which comprise:                a station for feeding a first web of filter paper;        a station for making a succession of circular impressions in the web;        a feed station for filling each impression made in the web with a product charge through a specific metering station;        a station for joining the first web of filter paper (having the product-filled impressions in it) to a second covering web fed at a respective sealing station located downstream of the metering station, again relative to the direction of rotation of the carousel;        a station for cutting the pods thus made and downstream of which the finished pods are transferred to a packaging station.        
Single-brew, disposable pods of this type are not free of disadvantages.
In particular, if the product for infusion is not very compact (typically the case of mixtures of two different products, such as chocolate, or coffee, and powdered milk), the resulting infusion is not usually up to required standards (in terms of flavour, for example).
To overcome this problem, an element like the one shown in FIG. 2 has been developed.
This element is a disc of plastic material having a plurality of internal cavities and must be inserted between the first and the second layer of filter paper.
The infusion product is placed in the cavities inside the disc. The cavities allow the product to be spread evenly over the entire inside surface of the disc.
The disc also enables the pod to remain compact even if the infusion product it contains is extremely inhomogeneous.
At present, automatic machines for making pods containing these discs of food-safe plastic do not exist.